Grateful We're Not Dead has finally achieved a modicum of international recognition. After posting Finally, Some Music (So To Speak) I returned a few hours later to see a comment added by Clay Eals, authour of Steve Goodman: Facing the Music, an 800 page biography of the late Steve Goodman. You can download the first chapter of Clay's book from his web site. The book looks to be a good read and can be purchased at the site's Online Store. The book is definitely going on my "must read" list.

The next morning I awoke to find out we had been featured in a blog article, Grateful We Are Not Dead And Loving It, by Allan Cockerill in Australia. Allan's blog is a worthwhile visit (especially since he thinks that Grateful We're Not Dead don't "sound all that bad") and I drop by on a regular basis. By the way Allan, is 'not sounding all that bad' synonymous with 'don't sound too damn good'? :-)

Anyway, as a result of Allan's article visits to this blog have skyrocketed. We've had t'ousands and t'ousands of visitors - at least 25. (That's 25 not 25,000 and according to Google Analytics, 40% of the visits have been by Search Engines. I guess those robots just love country music.)

Anyway, to wrap up this article I strongly suggest if you are a Steve Goodman fan that you drop by Clay Eals site and have a look at the first chapter of his book. And of course, for an interesting read, why not have Coffee With Allan Cockerill on a regular basis.

Last week Grateful We're Not Dead got together for a jam session in Don's living room and left the digital recorder running for the duration. Now that means there was no real concern for relative levels, panning, equalization, etc. while we banged and crashed. However, lack of professionalism aside we decided to upload some MP3 files for the foolhardy and masochists amongst you to listen to. So if you have a few brew handy, throw back, kick up your feet and prepare for some auditory abuse.

(P.S. If there are some delays in the streaming, blame it on DivShare. Thats where the MP3 files are stored.)

Last Friday evening (2008-04-11), Grateful We're Not Dead gathered at Lorenzo's Pizza on Adeline Street. Initially, it was just to be an evening with 8 or 10 of us eating, drinking and playing some music but Bruce found out that it was Gord and Evelyn's 22 Anniversary. Emails were sent and we ended up with a surprise party of about 30 people for our dear friends.

The music for the first part of the evening was a sing-a-long led by Marg Penniston. After food was served, Grateful We're Not Dead swung into full voice and entertained until about 10:15 PM. Two of our other musical friends, Jay Hunt (banjo) and Mel Sanshagrin (guitar and vocals) sat in with us to provide some interesting sounds. Thanks guys, we'll have to do that again.

We'd like to thank the management and staff at Lorenzo's for putting up with us for the evening. And as for your invitation for us to do it again - you can count on it!

Today I dropped by a friend's blog, Coffee with Allan Cockerill, and came upon some devastating information - BEER will be short supply, more expensive and may taste different as climate change affects barley production. However, along with this crushing news, Allan also included the lyrics of a song which I had long forgotten, A Pub With No Beer, and a link to a YouTube video of the late Slim Dusty performing it. Seeing as Grateful We're Not Dead are normally compensated with food and beer I think is only fitting that we add this song to our repertoire.